AL East Notes: Pineda, Gausman, Red Sox

While Yankees GM Brian Cashman has had his fair share of misses in terms of acquiring impact starting pitching both via trades and free agency, last night’s 16-strikeout performance by Michael Pineda and the 26-year-old’s brilliant start to the season serve help to erase some of those previous whiffs from his record, writes Bill Madden of the New York Daily News. Pineda has been every bit as good as Matt Harvey this season, Madden notes — the two have identical 2.72 ERAs — but with a fraction of the hype (though the 16 punchouts will likely balance some of that out). Manager Joe Girardi cited improvement in Pineda’s changeup, consistency in throwing strikes and improved maturity as reasons for Pineda’s breakout this season. Madden recalls both Cashman and his Seattle counterpart, Jack Zduriencik, calling the Pineda-for-Jesus Montero trade one of the toughest trades they’ve ever had to make, as each was parting with a potential future star. However, Montero’s future is questionable at best, as he’s moved off catcher and has yet to establish himself in the Major Leagues.

A few more notes from the AL East…

Chad Jennings of the Journal News also discusses the Pineda trade, recalling that at the time the deal was made, one talent evaluator told him that the safest bet in the trade was Montero’s bat. Every Yankees person to whom Jennings spoke back in 2012 said that it’d be several years before it was clear whether or not the Yankees had “won” the trade, and Jennings notes that that does seem to be the case now. Jennings spoke with Pineda who admitted that he’s done quite a bit of growing up in the past three years.

Orioles righty Kevin Gausman is currently on the disabled list and could be activated as soon as May 22, but when he does come off the DL, he’ll likely head to Triple-A and work as a starter, writes Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. Orioles manager Buck Showalter worries that Gausman has been underutilized coming out of the bullpen this season. Gausman himself told Encina that the team has said they don’t want him to finish the season with 40-50 innings and then have to jump into the rotation in 2016. As Encina notes, both Wei-Yin Chen and Bud Norris are free agents at season’s end, which could pave the way for a rotation spot with Gausman’s name on it.

Though Red Sox manager John Farrell is still maintaining that there will not be changes made to the rotation, his stance appears to have softened a bit, notes Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. “Not at the present moment,” Farrell said when asked if changes were planned. “Now, that’s always up for review. We’ll see how we continue to progress through the rotation for another turn.” Farrell was specifically asked about the possibility of moving Joe Kelly, who has yielded 21 runs over his past 21 2/3 innings, to the bullpen, but Farrell said such a change hadn’t been “closely discussed.” The Sox may want to get new pitching coach Carl Willis’ take on the rotation before making any decisions, Abraham notes.

Comments

Would have been even more impressive if he had been given the same strike zone as the O’s pitchers were given. It was still impressive, and I don’t think it would have changed the outcome of the game any, but Pineda was definitely getting strikes that the Orioles pitchers weren’t. This is not just me grumbling as an O’s fan, but me grumbling as an O’s fan who watched the game on television where Pitch Trax showed the location of each pitch in relation to the strike zone.

As a yankee fan I agree Pineda strike zone was pretty large but that could be a product of him hitting his spots perfectly. McCann would set up a little off the plate or a little past waist high and Pineda would hit the spot with out making him move his glove at all. Could be a reason he was getting the calls. Plus he had 20+ swing and misses. The guy was filthy and regardless of the zone, the O’s had no chance.

I don’t think anyone ever argued Pineda’s talent. There was and still is question about whether or not he can stay on the field. If he can put together a few seasons with minimal stays on the DL, he should be top pitchers conversation.

I think it probably depends on health overall. The same can be said of any team though. Although some of their health situations seem more tenuous than others. Tanaka is clearly an issue, as are some of their older players merely because they are more likely to get injured. They’re doing well now, but their season will not hinge on staying healthy as much as what kind of production they get from their depth when the injuries do happen.

Definitely runs deeper than just those two, however having at least one of those guys healthy will be key, they need that anchor every 5 days to hold the rest of the rotation together. The big need is to keep producing runs like they have so far, beyond health, that’s the key to their success, it’s what erred them all of last year. So far, so good, though.

You’re right but I’m not totally worried about the lineup right now. Beltran, McCann and Headley will improve a bit as the year goes on and they’ll put up some runs. The pen is lights out and as long as they keep getting the starting pitching, they’ll be fine.

It’s May 11. Rather have that discussion when the Yanks get to the post season. Right now there’s little point in talking playoff chances for a team many predicted would end far outside the postseason picture.

Pineda was ridiculous yesterday, absolutely filthy. 16Ks with no walks is astounding, no matter how you chalk it up. A good portion of his strikeouts were swing and misses, so complaining about the umpire’s SZ is really just slanting what the guy did, the Orioles lineup just couldn’t do anything with him aside from Hardy. He’s only walked 3 batters so far in 5 starts this season, he pounds the strike zone and just challenges batters,its fun to watch. He’s in the best shape he’s been in since wearing Pinstripes, which is huge, because the guy has sky-high potential when he has all of his stuff working like that.

Moving off of catcher isn’t what makes Montero’s future questionable. Had the trade never happened and he was still in the Yankees organization they’d have made the same positional move for him as well.

I still think it’s early to judge the trade. Montero can still hit, and maybe he gets it back together, and Pineda still has to stay healthy. Obviously, I’m glad the Yankees have Pineda. You wonder if Montero doesn’t need a change of scenery to get untracked. Cashman has wiffed many times on bringing in starting pitching. Some of those times, the talent was there, but the psychological makeup wasn’t. Pineda seems to have grown up.

The only reason its too early to judge the trade is because Pineda was constantly injured the past few years. Either way I think Pineda is a far more valuable player going forward. Hes already had major league success and Montero doesn’t even have a position he can play effectively.

I think had Montero stayed with the Yankees he would be a lot better player he is right now. Reason why I believe he’s been a bust so far is because there was no one on the Mariners (players or management) that would keep him on check if he acted out. Because no one was there to confront him during his antics, he did whatever he wanted. Yes I might be Yankee biased, but I think the Yankees would have done something had he tried to act like this since they wouldn’t tolerate it. Also steroid jokes aside A-Rod could have mentored the kid since A-Rod does know a thing or to about hitting. Also take into account that Yankee Stadium would have benefited Montero since he did have opposite field power. Montero was just put in a terrible decision, but both Montero and the Mariners have equal blame as to why he’s been bad.

Great start the other day but 1/2 of his strike outs came against the bottom third of the order and the Orioles had been slumping. Got me some cash in the DFS though

Pineda has not made more than 11 consecutive starts in a year before ending up on the DL since 2011. Its not like Pineda was some prospect, he had a great 2011 in MLB (and an awesome first half) before the trade was made. The question at the time was why Seattle parted with him for a guy they passed on when they traded Cliff Lee?. The question with him is if he can stay healthy.

Monetero OTOH met a fate not known for RH power hitters. The SAFECO curse. Had to have been a big let down going from the Yankees to the lowly (at the time) Mariners whose offense could not offend a nun. Like they say, teams know their own players best. Neither team got what they expected.

Yankees still hoping for their first healthy season from Pineda after 3 seasons w/o much health, and Montero seems to have plateaued in the PCL with a bat not good enough for 1B and a glove not good enough for C . Looks good for the Yankees at this moment in time.